Joe got identified 47 out of 50 of the states, and has done a great job learning the different regions. Like anything that is difficult for him, he started out complaining and saying he couldn't learn states. But with practice and encouragement, he did. He's still having trouble with division, but only because he doesn't take his time to think through the problem. There is still a major difference between his work when he writes the problem or when I do the work on the board.

Joe is improving with the times table and his flash cards. His times on the "holey" cards are improving and he's less resistant when I ask him to do it. We're reading a short story and I really am impressed by his understanding of what he's read. He does a great job of picking up the subtext, which is the toughest part of reading. Today, Judie and I sat with him as he wrote a letter to his grandmother, and he seemed to respond very well with the support. It's clearly very difficult for him to write anything, but with help getting ideas, he seems to do ok.

Joe definitely has issues with division, but I'm convinced that he will improve by practicing his times table. I tried to get him to work on his writing today, but he was very resistant. He clearly becomes more difficult to work with when he's not in his comfort zone.

Today we started to work on division, which is clearly an area Joe has a lot of trouble with. I got a lot of the whining and complaining Joe today. He claimed it was because he was sad this is his last week, but I'm pretty sure it was all about the math. When he's faced with a challenge, or something he doesn't like, Joe tends to shut down and fall back on the "I can't" defense. His biggest problem with division is that he doesn't know his times table very well and counting doesn't work as well with division. Rather than taking the problem step by step and working his way through it, he simply starts guessing. We'll work on it more this week.

Today, Joe concentrated very hard on his writing. He took the time to form each letter carefully and even used his finger to make the spaces between the words. When he slows down like that, his writing is much better, but it is a painstaking process for him. He continues to do well in his geography and reading comprehension, but really needs to focus on learning his times table for math.

We continued to work on writing today. Instead of having Joe trying to come up with his own material, I wrote 5 sentences on the board for him to copy. The purpose was for him to focus on writing neatly, and once he wrote all 5 sentences, he would have formed a solid paragraph. Joe hates writing and was resistant throughout the entire process. He clearly has an issue with it, and when he talked about it, it turns out that his behavior issues are often connected with writing. (I saw this for myself.) Furthermore, if I write the math problem out for him, he's much better at solving the problem than if he does it himself. He improved today, but he had to really slow down and take his time. Even with that, he had trouble forming letters and numbers, and writing clearly.

Today was the first day Joe could really write due to the cut on his thumb. He clearly has an issue with writing that affects not only his writing, but his math work as well. The more I pushed him to slow down and focus on being neat, the more resistant he became. I noticed that when he got uncomfortable, he reverted back to his old habits of whining and trying to get out of work.

Laila did very well with her first typing lesson. She learned the basic position very quickly, but didn't like the fact that she wasn't as good at proper typing as she was with the "two finger" approach. I stressed the importance of practice and what a difference it will make in the long run.

Joe had a good day today. He did very well with the "Holey Cards" and really seemed to enjoy the challenge of being timed. He's also doing very well with geography and has learned most of the states by region.

Joe had a good day today, but definitely has a mental block when it comes to multiplication and division. He's convinced himself he's no good at it, and reverted back to his old habits of "I don't know" and "I can't". So, I decided to go back to the very basic multiplication drills and start from there. He definitely improved as he moved through the problems, but I was writing them out on the board (thumb), which seems to help him. Joe continues to do very well in geography and reading comprehension, and is improving dramatically in chess.